On Friday, June 9, 2023, the 26th "Science in Japan" Forum was held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This event has been held annually since 1996 in Washington D.C. This forum promotes academic exchange and joint research by introducing cutting-edge Japanese research to U.S. universities and government agencies.

The theme of this year's form was "Quantum Taste of the Universe," with lectures and panel discussions by researchers at the International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP) and other research institutes.

In the first half of the forum, Prof. Masashi Hazumi, Director of QUP, gave a keynote talk, introducing the currently known state of the universe, the mysteries of the universe that are yet to be solved, and QUP's efforts to tackle them. Prof. Adrian T. Lee of UC Berkeley, Principal Investigator of QUP, followed that a key observation is the polarization of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) with the LiteBIRD satellite. Prof. Akito Kusaka of the University of Tokyo discussed the CMB observations from the ground.

After a short break, Prof. Reina Maruyama of Yale University and Dr. Maurice Garcia-Sciveres of LBNL, Principal Investigator of QUP, talked about searching and detecting unknown matter in the universe, such as dark matter. This was followed by a talk on industrial applications of the measurement of quantum fields, such as Casimir forces and the use of quantum sensors, by Prof.. Hideo Iizuka, Principal Investigator of QUP.

The forum was closed with a panel discussion with all speakers moderated by Prof. Dmitri Denisov of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University. There were active discussions inspired by questions from the audience, indicating a high level of interest in the science presented in the forum.

More information on this forum can be found at the following URL:

The 26th "Science in Japan" Forum
https://jspsusa.org/wp/230609-2/